Disk drives comprise a disk and a head connected to a distal end of an actuator arm which is rotated about a pivot by a voice coil motor (VCM) to position the head radially over the disk. The disk comprises a plurality of radially spaced, concentric tracks for recording user data sectors and servo sectors. The servo sectors comprise head positioning information (e.g., a track address) which is read by the head and processed by a servo control system to control the velocity of the actuator arm as it seeks from track to track.
FIG. 1 shows a prior art disk format 4 as comprising a number of data tracks 6 defined by servo sectors 20-2N recorded around the circumference of each data track. Each servo sector 2i comprises a preamble 8 for storing a periodic pattern, which allows proper gain adjustment and timing synchronization of the read signal, and a sync mark 10 for storing a special pattern used to symbol synchronize to a servo data field 12. The servo data field 12 stores coarse head positioning information, such as a servo track address, used to position the head over a target data track during a seek operation. Each servo sector 2, further comprises groups of servo bursts 14 (e.g., A, B, C and D bursts), which comprise a number of consecutive transitions recorded at precise intervals and offsets with respect to a data track centerline. The groups of servo bursts 14 provide fine head position information used for centerline tracking while accessing a data track during write/read operations.
The servo track addresses in the servo data 12 are typically implemented using a Gray code wherein a single bit changes between codewords that represent adjacent servo tracks. In this manner, the Gray coded track addresses can be detected and decoded unambiguously even when the head is between servo tracks, for example, during a seek operation. However, the Gray coded track addresses consume disk space that might otherwise be used for user data, thereby reducing the capacity of the disk drive.